By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(June 29, 2001) -- Steven Spielberg beat Stanley Kubrick to the punch with an earlier sci-fi fantasy and a later Holocaust film. Still, the older director respected the box-office wonder.

He admired the way Spielberg balanced the quality of his films with the desires of the popcorn pubic. And he respected Spielberg's talent with technology.

For his part, Spielberg considered Kubrick a genius of cinema, and, in a way, a mentor; and the two became friends, mostly through frequent phone calls.

So imagine Spielberg's passion when, in his middle years, he found himself collaborating with Kubrick, the cinema's great dark intellectual. Or, to be honest, with the spirit of Kubrick, for the older filmmaker died in 1999 at 69, just as he completed Eyes Wide Shut.

Kubrick had worked on ideas for A.I., the story of a robot boy's search for humanity, for some 20 years, after reading a short story by Brian Aldiss.

Kubrick discussed his ideas several times with Spielberg.

Spielberg had crossed Kubrick's path in other ways, at other times. When Kubrick first considered A.I., he decided it was too close to Spielberg's recent smash, E.T. Years later, Kubrick also considered a Holocaust drama; then Spielberg emerged first with Schindler's List.

Kubrick also despaired of ever finding the special effects techniques to pull off A.I. Then he saw Spielberg's Jurassic Park dinosaurs. He almost immediately phoned special effects czar Dennis Muren of Industrial Light and Magic to pepper him with questions. Kubrick suggested to Spielberg that he would produce the film, while Spielberg would direct it. Kubrick thought the subject fit the younger man's sensibilities.

Kubrick's long-time producer Jan Harlan suggests another reason for Kubrick to look toward Spielberg: Kubrick notoriously took many months to direct a movie, so any child star might grow and change. The faster-shooting Spielberg would have no such problem.

But when it actually came time to make the film, Kubrick was gone. Spielberg had only the veteran filmmaker's copious notes, a script treatment and design sketches.

Could the warmly emotional father of E.T. co-exist with the ghost of the cynical genius behind A Clockwork Orange?

With A.I. we have the rousing answer. It has Kubrick's disturbing, philosophical vision. But it is also a Spielberg film, with a redeeming strain of humanity and warmth.

It's the first Kubrick film that brings a tear.

And what both men brought to A.I. is essential. The film is a classic example of a collaborative work that's greater than the sum of its parts.

If Kubrick had lived to make the film alone -- or Spielberg had originated it -- A.I would have been worthwhile. Neither man could make a film that isn't at least interesting.

But with both men at the helm -- one way or the other -- A.I. became something more. It became a masterpiece.